Becoming Kate
by NautiBitz
Summary: An extremely AU femslash twist on BtVS Season 2. Kate is the Slayer. William is her watcher. Faith, Buffy and Willow are lesbian vampires. Sounds crazy, I know, but hear me out... PLEASE READ WARNINGS. / Originally published in 2003
1. Katie Did

**_Becoming Kate_ by NautiBitz**

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**CHAPTER ONE:** "Katie Did"**

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**WARNING: This fic contains brief depictions of rape (by female vampires with random victims), and graphic violence. It's not meant to titillate, it's meant to show that the vampires in this story are not sweet and cuddly, but horrifyingly evil.  
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**Summary**: A young Kate Lockley suffers the consequences of sleeping with her ensouled vampire lover, Faith. Extreme AU in response to a challenge.

**Timeline**: An extremely AU Season 2

**Originally Published/Completed**: July 2002/January 2003

**Stats**: 4 chapters | 9,781 words | _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ | Kate/Faith, Buffy/Willow, B/F/W | NC-17/M for sex/violence/rape | Character Death

**Genres**: Angst, Horror, Drama, Dark, Romance, Challenge

**Awards Won**: _"Best Alternate Reality - Runner Up"_ from the Vixen Fiction Awards.

**Author's Note**: Dubbed the "challenge from hell" over at You Got the Stones (a defunct challenge site), I was compelled to give it a try: _"An alternate-universe fic in which Faith is a vampire with a soul, Buffy is her grandchilde, Kate Lockley [the cop on Angel] is the slayer, and the rest of the characters are up to the author. Must have BOTH of the following: Angst, Death by fire for some vamp. Must have ONE of the following: Mention of some movie made by SMG or Seth, Alyson, or Eliza, but with diff actors; Riley getting beat up, whoever his character is; Mention of a vamp being executed mob style with cement boots; Some type of jail."_ (I used all.)

**Author's Note the Second**: Some may interpret this story as lesbianism = bad. That certainly isn't my intention, what with me being in a happy same-sex relationship and all.

**Thanks**: to beta readers Rabid, Limber, KJ Draft and Annie Sewell-Jennings.

**Distribution**: Links only, please. Do not reprint. Do not post translations. Thanks!

**Disclaimer**: All characters are property of Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. I'm borrowing them to make them pervier and meaner than usual. Some dialogue is Joss Whedon's.

**Rights:** I do not own these characters or the worlds they inhabit. However, the text I have written is **not YOURS** to paste into your own fic in any way, shape or form. **That is called plagiarism, and it is not cool.** Not that YOU would ever do that, because YOU are awesome. Obviously. :)

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**Chapter summary**: Kate Lockley, the Vampire Slayer, suffers the consequences of sleeping with her ensouled vampire lover, Faith.

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**Kate Lockley doesn't cry.**

As far as she knows, she never has — not when she broke her ankle in the third grade; not when her mother died five autumns later; and not when, at sixteen, she learned she was chosen to save the world from vampires.

Slayers don't cry, Kate reminds herself. _I_ don't cry.

But somehow, saline is miraculously welling in her eyes and sliding down her cheeks.

She wipes at it compulsively with the back of her hand and struggles to keep her voice steady. "I don't underst— ...What are you saying?"

"I'm sayin' it was fun, K," the vampire breezes as she primps in front of the mirror, unfazed by her lack of reflection. "We had a good time. But I got places to do, so if you wanna call a cab..."

"A '_cab'_?" Sheet wrapped around her naked body, Kate shoots up from the bed in hopes that the jolt will wake her from this nightmare. It doesn't. "What the hell is going on, Faith?"

"What's 'going on' is that I'm sick of hearin' all this whining, _Katie." _For the first time that evening, the brunette bothers to face her.

That's when Kate notices that there's something wrong with her eyes. Vacant, inaccessible, almost frightening, they lack the sparkle of devotion, of _connection _that she's grown so accustomed to. "Last night..." Her throat constricts and she tries again. "Last night you told me you _loved_ me."

Faith cocks her head. "And the fact that you bought it? Your prob, not mine."

"_Bought_ it? Faith, we've been together over a year... You said..." She blinks back more tears.

"Yeah, well maybe I just _said_ that to pry apart your creamy virgin thighs." She shrugs. "And if you ask me? Wasn't worth it." With that, she grabs her keys, makes for the door and slams it behind her.

And just like that, Faith is gone.

Numbly, Kate sits on the bed. Her first lover's last words crackle in the air, bounce off the walls, echo in her ears:

_Wasn't worth it._

"What did I do?" she wonders aloud, desperately recounting the day's events for clues, but all she can access is the pure sensory experience: of Faith's skin touching hers; of fingers in soft, wet places; of trembling at the edge of her lover's tongue, the sensation taking her, twisting her, consuming her...

Kate shudders slightly along with the memory. When it was over, Faith had choked: "I love you — Jesus Katie, more than anything..."

"All a lie?" Kate helplessly begs of the empty room. And then those damning words answer her: _"Wasn't worth it." _

Was she a bad lover? How could that _be _when the force of Faith's orgasm practically registered on the Richter Scale, with all that accompanying shaking and thrashing and groaning — the groaning of _her_ name, no less...

Sighing, she slowly unfurls the sheet from her body and bitterly recalls the joy of waking up in that sheet; waking up in Faith's bed. It was her fantasy come true: spending all their time _together_, talking, sparring, making love... everything was going to be perfect.

The only trouble was, Faith wasn't in bed anymore. She was already stepping out of the shower, selecting clothing from her closet... and ignoring Kate.

Except to say, "Man, had to scrub like a motherfucker to get the smell of pussy off me. That's some potent slayer juice you got there."

And that's when the "Who are you and what have you done with my girlfriend" line of questioning began. Followed by the blubbering.

Kate rolls her watery eyes. _Pathetic._

Wiping her face again, she notices the intoxicating scent of Faith on her fingers. She noticed it the minute she woke up; happily, fondly, she savored it like a delicious secret revealed only to her.

Now it makes her sick.

Defeatedly, she slides on her pants, discarded that morning in the heat of passion. Her seventeenth birthday; her first time. She'd marveled at how perfect it was. How she wouldn't change a thing.

"God, you're so beautiful... so _sweet,_ so _pure_," Faith had murmured. "This isn't right, baby, we can't do this. We shouldn't—" But with another searing kiss, Kate made it clear that this was something that couldn't be stopped, couldn't be contained. This was dark, hot, thousand year old passion — older and stronger than either of them.

Well, it was. Wasn't it?

_Maybe she's under a spell, _Kate reasons while shakily buttoning up her shirt. _Maybe Witch-Monster-From-Hell's behind this._ It wouldn't be the first time she's tried to intervene.

"Or maybe I'm just an idiot," she mutters, wincing at the all-too-real possibility of deception.

William's initial foray into the vampire's background made a convincing case: "Your Faith is quite the enigma," he'd announced, book in one hand, reading glasses in the other. "Apparently, she was notorious for attacking teenage girls — having been just shy of eighteen when she herself was turned. It says here she had an unquenchable thirst for torture, both physical and psychological—" Kate had cut him off with, "Are you sure that's _my_ Faith?"

Because _her_ Faith bore no resemblance to such a monster: _her_ Faith was compassionate, thoughtful, heroic, sincere — feisty and stubborn, too, but so many exits past _evil _she couldn't make the connection.

Of course, Kate quickly learned the disturbing truth. Faith herself willingly recounted some of the horrific things she'd done as a soulless vampire, before the curse... no, the _blessing_ that made her the anomaly she'd become.

Or so she'd led her to believe.

Kate stands and stares at the hardly recognizable girl in the mirror. Same wheat-blonde hair, same pale blue upturned eyes — but those eyes are red-rimmed and puffy, that hair is a shambles, and her shirt is buttoned wrong. She can't go out like this.

_Psychological torture._ Once fun and games for Faith. In fact, it was the way she'd conquered a certain young spell-caster several decades earlier: "All I saw in Willow was a challenge," Faith had ruefully confessed, eyes downcast. "I pegged her worst fear: that the magic would fly outta her control, that it would, you know, hurt the people she loved. So I..." Kate had to gently coax the painful memory out of her. "...I killed her dad, her mom... and I made her think she did it. Anyway... Her second week at the asylum, I broke in, murdered everyone in my path and made her a vampire. Yeah, so... Evil demon witch courtesy of yours truly."

_"An unquenchable thirst for torture, both physical and psychological_—_"_

"No," Kate's voice is harsh in the cold silence.

No matter how strong the evidence, she refuses to accept that Faith has been _acting_ for the past year and a half: fighting by her side, tipping her off to every evil in town, getting chummy with her Watcher and her best friend, being so conflicted about their relationship... It doesn't make sense. And it doesn't explain why there's been no record of Faith's destruction for nearly thirty years — the thirty years she claimed to have lived in penance.

_"All I saw was a challenge."_ A vampire bedding a slayer — there's a challenge, no doubt about that. But if that was _all_ Faith wanted, she could have convinced her the very first night they met — Kate was wildly attracted to the dark stranger from the get-go, even before she'd raised her arms to insist, "I know what you're thinkin', but I don't bite."

If she just wanted to torture her... well, score. But all of that... for this?

_You're damn right it wasn't worth it!_ she wants to shout. But there's no point. It's over.

Kate sniffles, pulls herself together, and leaves her lover's apartment.

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This part always gets Willow hot.

Locking eyes with Buffy over the succulent neck they've chosen to share tonight, she grins, swallowing ribbons of warm, luscious life. Around their meal, they're touching, fondling each other and _it_ as it whimpers and mews. Like a cat.

Impatiently, Willow rips the girl's halter top, pushes her backward against Buffy and sinks sharp fangs into the girl's right nipple. The victim still has enough fight left to struggle vainly and sound a strangled cry. It's music to Willow's ears.

Dazedly, she looks up at Buffy. "I wanna make our kitty cry the worst. Can I, baby?"

Dinner's eyes widen in horror.

"She's all yours." Buffy wrestles the girl down on their bed, yanks up her cheap miniskirt and pries apart her knees, holding them open for her sire. Willow grins and dives down, biting into the girl's most tender flesh. A sharp scream pierces the air.

Pleading whimpers spurring her on, Willow giggles as she finds new areas to bite, each more soft and delicate than the last.

Buffy reaches down to caress Willow's head and laps at the blood still trickling from the girl's neck, listening to the rattle of labored breath, hitching faster, faster, faster... It's funny to her, how people always do that when they're so close to dying. Trying to hold on, hoping for another breath after this one... Well, there _won't_ be anymore. Soon enough.

At last, the girl lets out a long exhale, and doesn't inhale again. Her eyes stare blankly at the ceiling.

Willow stops and complains, "Kitty's no fun anymore."

"I keep telling you," Buffy teasingly chastises. "That's what happens when you eat too fast."

"But she tasted so good." She coyly licks her lips. "Wanna see?"

Buffy smiles and crawls over the dead girl to press her lips against Willow's. Their tongues mingle the heady flavors of blood and sex, their fangs cut into one another's flesh. They reach for buttons and zippers as the kiss deepens, turning hungry and hard...

"This a private party, or can anyone join in?"

Caught by surprise, the vampires take in their intruder: Faith, standing by their bed with a woozy young girl at her side.

"It's Faith," Willow says, shrinking back with a pout. "Make her go away."

Buffy, still in demon face, stands up confrontationally. "So. Come here to get killed or just horribly maimed?"

"Cute." Faith shoots her a smile. "Came here to tell you I'm back."

"In... what?" Buffy asks wryly.

With a short gasp, Willow stands to approach Faith slowly, carefully. "She is. Buffy, I can feel it. Her soul, it's..." She reaches out and touches her sire's chest. A blue light shimmers and fades. "Gone."

"It's a trick," Buffy says, and nods towards Faith's companion. "You're so soulless, eat her. Right here in front of us."

Faith smiles wide, lets her face turn. "Thought you'd never ask." Roughly, she bares the girl's neck and crunches down, sucking violently.

Willow and Buffy share an impressed look.

Buffy stops her. "All right, we get it. Share time now."

Amber eyes glinting in the candlelight, Faith tears the clothing from the girl's back and throws her onto the bed atop the drained carcass. Weakly, the living victim tries to scramble away, but a sneering Faith tugs her close and unflinchingly snaps the tibia of each one of her legs: _crack! crack!_

Holding a limp foot in each hand, she shouts over the girl's screams, "Will, you gonna do the panty honors or what?"

Overwhelmed with excitement, Willow squeals, "Faithy's back!"

Buffy nods in skeptical appraisal. "'Bout time."

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_Continued..._

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Characters and settings property of respective creators.  
Story, dialog and prose property of NautiBitz.  
All rights reserved. (IE, it is not okay to borrow it for your fic.) 


	2. Soul Survivor

**_Becoming Kate_ by NautiBitz**

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CHAPTER TWO:** "Soul Survivor"**

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**"I don't get it. I just don't get it." **Holding wisps of hair behind her neck, Kate stares down at her plate of cafeteria food. The rectangle of pizza is congealing into a surreal landscape of blood and flesh and oregano bits. Everything is turning ugly.

"Well, you know," Tara says, treading carefully, "people can be mean, whether they have souls or not. Maybe she was just having a bad day."

"You don't understand. If you could have heard her... The things she said to me?" Kate shudders.

"Like what?"

"I..." She squeezes her eyes shut. "I can't..."

"It's okay, honey," Tara soothes. "You don't have to say."

"I want to," Kate shrugs helplessly. "It's just..." She focuses on her blood-pizza. "I don't want to start crying again."

Tara furrows her brow, and the words slip out. "_You_ cried?"

"Who cried?" Riley asks brightly, taking a seat beside his friends.

"Not me," Kate says.

"You?" Riley takes a bite of his apple and points at her. "You don't cry."

"I have to go." Kate feebly picks up her lunch tray. "I'll catch you guys later, 'kay?"

"Yeah, sure." Once she's out of earshot, Riley looks to Tara. "What's up with her?"

"It's nothing... Just Faith strangeness."

"See, I don't get that. What's the strangeness? She's a demon, Kate should slay her." He chews and swallows. "End of story."

Tara sighs. "Ri, we've had this talk."

"We had a talk?"

"Yes. The 'Faith is different' talk? Not like other vampires? Got a soul?"

"I don't care. Soul or not, something's bound to go wrong."

Tara wants to believe it hasn't.

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"There you are!" William makes Kate jump at the exclamation spoken behind her. "I've been looking all over for you. You were supposed to check in yesterday." Scanning the hallway for teachers who might misinterpret his words, he adds quietly, "I was worried."

"Oh." Kate files her last books into her locker. "Right. Sorry."

He takes in her dejected state. "Kate? Is something wrong?"

She sighs, looks down, looks away, looks anywhere but at this man who's offered her more paternal guidance in the past year than her own father has in the last seventeen... and then that one damned, stupid tear begins to fall.

"No," she whispers, and wipes it away. "Nothing."

"Katie," he says softly. "Talk to me. Come on to the library."

Well, she's not about to cry out here in front of the entire student body. She follows him.

"So tell me," William prefaces once they're behind closed doors. "Who do I kill?"

"Me," Kate sniffles as she collapses onto his office couch. "Please?"

"Hmm. Sort of defeats the purpose," he dryly points out and pulls up a chair. "Anyway, I'd wager it's not as bad as you think."

"It's pretty bad." She halts another tear's course, and averts her gaze. "It's Faith."

"Faith?" He tries to catch her eye. "What about her?"

"Actually, it's about me..." she offers, "and her. _Us."_

"Katie," he chuckles in relief. "You honestly think I didn't know?"

She considers him for a second. "You knew?"

"Well, yeah," he says. "All those questions about whether she's good, evil, redeemable, and so forth... Yeah, I had an inkling."

"Guess I'm an easy read," Kate deduces with a tinge of embarrassment.

"No," William assures her, "but I've always risen to the challenge of a difficult one."

"Right," she says, realizing this is the guy who translates Ancient Sumerian on a regular basis. "Anyway. Something... changed yesterday."

"What?"

"She suddenly... started acting differently. Really... hateful? I thought maybe someone cast a spell on her, maybe that witch-girlfriend of Buffy's —"

"Willow."

"Yeah, her. I had that dream, remember, so I thought maybe... I don't know."

"What happened yesterday? Between Faith acting normally, and not so normally?"

"Um." Kate's eyes flicker with the truth. "Nothing too weird. I mean, I didn't _see_ anything magical." _Just the curve of her belly as she arched her back and_—

"Perhaps she's just having a bad time of it then. I'm sure she'll come 'round."

She shakes her head violently. "We—" she looks at the ceiling, starts, and falters.

He waits.

"We were um..." she looks down.

He offers quietly, "Intimate?"

She nods, and the tears fall again. "She was so mean afterwards," she sobs, hunched over into her hands.

"Oh hell," he says, hating that even his Slayer's not immune to being spurned. He hands her a tissue.

"I'm sorry." She blows her nose. "I feel so stupid..."

"You're not stupid," William firmly corrects her. "She is. Just because she's being a nit, don't you think for one second it's your fault. Alright?"

She nods slowly, and sits up. "I should — I should go patrol."

"Look, if you're not feeling up to it, you shouldn't—"

"I want to," she cuts in. "It'll help clear my mind, I think." She wobbles up to leave. "Besides, if my dad saw me like this..." she laughs wanly and rolls her eyes. "The last thing I need to hear right now is 'Snap out of it, kid! Yer embarrassin' me!'"

"Right then," William says with a tender smile. "Well, I'll be here if you need me."

"Thanks," she says, and takes a deep breath before exiting.

* * *

"Oh my god." Anya Jenkins stares at her computer monitor and gasps. "Oh my god."

She presses a button, reads the words on the screen one more time as she waits, snatches the printout and heads for the library — but upon closing her classroom door, she bumps into just the floppy-haired, bespectacled Englishman she was looking for.

"Oh — oh. Sorry," he bumbles, bending down to collect the papers she dropped. Upon standing, he notices that he's bumped into _her._ Poetic refrains spring to mind. "Anya!"

She can't help but smile. "William," she breathes, "I wanted you."

Dueling expressions of surprise, delight, and apprehension. "You did?"

"I mean—" she shakes her head. _Business now, pleasure later._ "To see you. For this — I was about to show you—" _Pleasure. No... Think, Anya, think!_ "These papers!" She holds them up. "Very important."

He puts on his serious face and hastily leafs through the printouts. "What is all this?"

She ushers him back into her classroom and sits him down in front of the computer screen. "I've been researching Faith's curse."

"You have?"

"Yeah, well. She's kind of an interesting case, don't you think?"

"Yes, quite." He frowns at the computer. "But I've been researching as well and haven't come up with a bloody thing." He squints. "You even had it translated? Where on earth—"

"Well, there's this thing called the _in-ter-net,_" she teases. "You may have heard of it. It's kind of like an enormous library?"

He waves his hand. "Bollocks."

"Okay, you can call it Bullock's or Macy's or whatever department store you want, but the point is, if you look in the right places, you can find some remarkable things."

William smiles at her, thoroughly charmed. "Remarkable is right."

"Anyway." Anya clears her throat and gets to the point. "There's a catch."

"A catch? In the 'Net?"

"No, the curse. There's a catch." Anya holds up the printout and begins to read. "'Blah blah blah, fire and brimstone, blah blah blah... ' oh, here it is. 'If the accursed should experience just one moment of ultimate bliss, that soul shall be taken away.'"

"Ultimate bliss? That's vague."

"Not really." She clears her throat again. "It's kind of a euphemism."

"For what?" He looks up at her.

She raises her browline.

William's face goes white. "Kate." He takes off, mumbling, "Gotta find her."

"Don't mention it!" Anya yells out after him. She sighs, adds quietly in an animated tone, "Dinner? I'd love to!" and sits back down with her printout. At another passage, she frowns. "Huh."

* * *

"Hey there, T."

Recovering from the alarm of being accosted by a dark figure emerging from the shadows, Tara exhales in relief, "Faith! God, you scared me."

"Headed home?" Faith asks, stepping closer.

Feeling an unusual trepidation, Tara's eyes dart around the quiet residential street. "Y-yeah."

"Where's Katie? She with you?"

"No, she's patrolling i-in Breaker's Woods tonight. Haven't you seen her today?"

Faith grimaces, her hands in her coat pockets. "Nah."

Tara takes a deep breath and gathers her courage. "You know, she — she's really hurting over some of the stuff you said yesterday."

"Is that so?" Faith asks, faintly amused. "Now remind me, how exactly is that your business?"

"It's my business wh-when she's on the verge of tears—"

The vampire chuckles over her tirade. "Wh-wh-wh-what?"

Tara looks at her askance. "Faith? What's wrong with you?"

"Nothin', actually. I feel great." With a shrug, she advances. "Five by five."

Tara backs up and stammers the first thing that comes to mind. "Five... what by five... wh-what?"

"W-w-well you see," Faith begins menacingly, edging closer, "_five_ is for how many pieces they'll find your body in. And the other five is for how many times I'm gonna _fuck_ it." Her face morphs.

A cold hand snakes around Tara's neck and covers her mouth. "I call five more," says a low voice in her ear. Willow. _What the hell?_

"I want a piece, too," claims Buffy, stepping into the streetlamp light. "Maybe just a finger. I'm not picky."

Faith grins. Tara struggles.

"Ooh, kitty," Willow purrs as she rubs a hand over Tara's breasts. "The more you wiggle the more I want you, don't you know that?"

"Back off!" Riley yells, bursting out of the bushes behind them and surprising Willow with a cross. Hissing, she lets go of Tara and scrambles to Buffy's side.

Riley pushes Tara back with one hand and extends the cross with the other. The two inch backward, more inconvenienced than afraid. Faith stays put, unimpressed. "You been followin' us or somethin'?"

He nods. "Since you left the warehouse. Figured you'd pull a three on one freakfest. Only fair to even the score."

"Dibs on farm boy," Buffy asides to Willow with a grin.

Willow scoffs and rolls her eyes. "You're so hetero."

"What?" Buffy croaks defensively, angry that Faith has been putting ideas in Willow's head again. "I just wanna beat the crap out of him!"

"Sure ya do," Willow retorts.

"A measly little cross?" Faith bobs and weaves forward, body moving side to side like a cobra, ready to strike at any moment. "That all the ammo you got, Idaho?"

"It's Iowa," Riley grinds out through clenched teeth.

"Whatever. Point is," Faith fakes him out, then kicks the cross out of his hand, "You're gonna have to do a little better than that."

"Is this better?"

The icy-cool timbre cuts through the night air like a flung dagger.

Faith swings around to see her lover, backlit in battle stance.

"Uh-oh," Willow singsongs, hand over mouth as if she's been caught raiding the cookie jar. "It's the girlfriend."

"Wrong," Kate corrects her evenly. "It's the Slayer."

Taking advantage of this distraction, Riley clobbers Faith on the back of the head with the cross. She falls.

Tara whispers, "How did Katie—"

"Cell phone," Riley answers as they back away. "Maybe you'll remember to recharge yours from now on."

"Uh, yeah."

Kate rushes forward and slugs Willow before she can utter a syllable of Latin. She kneels to punch her again. "You did this, didn't you!" Sensing Buffy creeping up behind her, she snaps her elbow backward, fist connecting with the vampire's perky nose.

"Dammit!" Buffy nurses the Slayer's target. "Why do you always go for the _nose_?"

Kate follows with a low sweeping kick, buckling Buffy onto her back. Just then, she sees Riley being thrown through the air from Faith's blow. He hits a tree. Tara runs to him and pulls something out of his pocket. The phone.

Faith strides over to Kate as Buffy gets up to attack again. She flings the younger vampire aside. "She's mine. Open season on her friends."

"Riley! Tara!" Kate shouts. "Get out of here, now!"

But it's too late — Buffy's already descended on Riley with a flurry of kicks and punches. And Tara is too busy muttering disjointed spells as Willow, a much stronger witch, comes awake.

"You leave my friends out of this," Kate warns as they circle one another. "Whatever beef you have with me, you take it up with the source."

"Aw," Faith says patronizingly. "You wanna talk it out? Cuddle with your wittle pooky?" She jump-kicks, nailing Kate in the jaw. "Newsflash honey, she's gone."

Kate staggers and whispers, "What happened to you?"

"Remember that little condition I had? The one with the not wanting to rip your guts out?" She snaps her fingers against a flat palm. "Cleared right up."

Kate ducks a right hook.

An old DeSoto comes screeching up the pavement, hitting the sidewalk. William jumps out and surveys the scene: Faith and Kate sparring, Riley rolling around on the ground with Buffy, Willow holding Tara in thrall, beckoning her closer with a spell-enriched hand. Quickly, William shoots a crossbow that stakes Willow's hand to the tree. She howls in pain.

"Bind her," he orders Tara. "Now!"

Hit with sudden hope and clarity, Tara repeats a single command, "_Vincire_," that keeps Willow affixed to the spot. The vampire growls in disgruntlement.

"Kate!" William shouts. "The curse! The bloody curse has been lifted!"

Kate rears back from a hit, stares at Faith. "Lifted...?"

"That's right, K," Faith says, with a grin. "No more nasty soul to bog me down. I feel so much better now, you know? Free. And kinda tingly. Ever see that movie 'Soul Survivors'?"

Kate breathes in through flared nostrils, angry now. "Can't say I have."

"Yeah, well, me neither," she says as she blocks an attack. "Crappy cast. Stupid trailer." She shoves her palm upward to pop the stake out of Kate's hand. "But somehow? I can relate to the title."

"I've got a title for you," Kate knees her in the stomach, making her double over. "'Dust In The Wi—'"

Faith grabs the Slayer's wrists and flings her over her head. Turning on her heel to stand above the girl now on the ground, she says, "I'd be a little faster with those quips, I were you."

Kate spots the stake nearby, just out of reach...

William points a crossbow downward at Buffy's back and orders slowly, "Off the boy."

Buffy rolls away from Riley and stands up. "I didn't hurt him," she offers, and smiles slyly. "Much."

Still aiming the crossbow at her chest, William offers a hand to Riley.

"It tried to _kiss_ me," Riley spits in disgust, wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand.

Willow gives Buffy a look.

"It's called biting?" the vampiress explains.

"This isn't fun anymore," the redhead gruffs. "Let's just go."

"I beg to differ," William says, hand on trigger.

"You'll be begging soon enough, Watcher." Willow takes Buffy's hand, orders "_Evolo!"_ and they disappear, leaving only the stake wobbling in the tree.

Tara gasps, spent from spellbinding, and falls to her feet. Riley and William help her up.

Riley gestures at Kate. "We've gotta help her."

"You can't hurt me," Faith realizes and protrudes her lips into a pout. "You love me too much."

"I can," Kate parries and throws her own punch. "And I will."

"Not before I kill everyone you know," Faith promises, connecting with a roundhouse kick.

Kate rolls onto the ground, grabs the stake, and jumps back onto her feet. "You're not killing anyone."

"Oh, I will," she vows as she continues to fight. "I'm gonna kill your dad, your Watcher, and _all _your little friends. Hell, I'm even thinkin' of diggin' up your mom and dry-humping her eyesockets, how 'bout that?"

"Go on," Kate snarls. "Just keep making it easier." She gets the better of Faith, throws two staggering blows and presses the stake to the vampire's chest...

Faith's demon features melt away.

Kate registers the face of her lover and flinches. She drops the stake.

Faith cackles. "You can't do it. I told you. You can't kill me."

Kate turns as if to walk away, but she spins back with a flying kick to the solar plexus. Faith sails through the air, finally caving in the roof of a car with her dead weight.

Over the wailing car alarm, Kate promises, "Just give me time."

_

* * *

_

_Continued..._

_

* * *

_

Characters and settings property of respective creators.  
Story, dialog and prose property of NautiBitz.  
All rights reserved. (IE, it is not okay to borrow it for your fic.)


	3. Family

**_Becoming Kate_ by NautiBitz**

**

* * *

**CHAPTER THREE:** "Family"**

**

* * *

****  
**

**Kate shimmies into her bedroom window just before midnight.**

"Katie?" Her father, shouting as he opens the apartment's front door.

She kicks off her shoes, sheds her jacket, and ventures out into the hallway, assuming the casual pose of someone who's been lounging in her bedroom for hours.

"Hi, Dad," she greets, before noticing his redfaced rage.

He advances. "Who did this?"

He shoves a sheet of paper in front of her. At the center of it, she recognizes a polaroid of herself, nude, dozing on Faith's bed. Real blood dots the crotch area of the photo and the words GUESS WHO GOT THERE FIRST, POP are scrawled across the page.

Kate trembles, the paper floats to the floor. She backs away, staring at it.

"Who _did_ this?" he snarls.

She can't speak. She can't think. She can just vaguely hear him shouting, "Katie! Don't you protect this piece a' shit, you hear me? Tell me who it is and I'll make him sorry he was ever born! He'll be at the bottom of the Pacific with cement boots on, time I'm done with him!"

She trembles, shaking her head, staring at Faith's portrayal of her in post-coital sleep.

"Goddammit!" He holds her at arm's length, shakes her until she looks at him. "What'd he do to you? Don't you protect him! Tell me!"

Still in shock, she whispers, "Dad, it's not..."

"What? You're trying to tell me it's some kind of sick joke? Do you have _any_ idea what it was like for me to get this at work — to have the whole precinct see my daughter...?" He shook his head.

She snaps out of it, looks at him. "You... This is about _your_ embarrassment?"

"No!" he blurts, and runs his palm over his face.

_Same old story. Same old Dad._ "Yeah, thanks a lot, Dad. Thanks for caring _so_ deeply—"

He slaps her. "Dammit, Katie! I thought you were dead! You hear me? I thought this shitbastard killed you!"

Eyes wide, she touches her stinging cheek. He's never slapped her, not once. She turns to leave.

"Katie!" He grabs her, hugs her fiercely. "I'm sorry, Katie... I can't lose you too."

She pulls away, knowing all too well that he will. And if she lets this go, it'll be sooner rather than later. "I have to go."

"What? Don't you dare—"

She pushes him off, shoves him so hard he hits the wall. "I'm sorry. I have to go!"

"You get back here! _Katie!"_

* * *

"Faith is so dead. She is so very dead," Riley mutters, pacing the library.

"Riley?" Tara calls. He glances at her. She shakes her head.

With a loud exhale, Riley reluctantly sits down.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Tara asks, putting a hand on Kate's.

"Yeah," she exhales. "I'm a little spooked. But that's exactly what she wants. I can't let this get to me."

"Easier said than done, I suppose," William says as he sets down a coffee cup before her.

"Yeah." She sips at it and looks around. "Thanks for coming here you guys, I know it's late."

"We were kind of worried about you after you ran off tonight anyway, after..."

"After you _almost_ killed Faith," Riley finishes. "Tell me again why you didn't?"

"That's enough," William snips harshly.

He ducks his head. "Sorry, sir."

"Riley's right," Kate admits, sounding tired and somehow... older. "She attacked my two best friends... I had her right there... and I couldn't do it."

"Katie," William soothes. "You weren't prepared for this. One day is hardly enough time to..."

"I wasn't prepared for any of this," she staunchly reminds him. "Demons, vampires, being the Slayer? They're back together again, the three of them. Just like old times. This is just the beginning."

"I don't doubt it. We've got a hard road ahead of us. I think it's best that we all stick together through this, and arm ourselves with all the information we can about the three in the meantime."

* * *

Three vampires, nude bodies smeared in blood and warm with borrowed heat, bite and suckle and ride one another, grunting and moaning and growling for release on a crimson-stained bedspread.

"My little girls," Faith pants, grabbing at their heads, fastening their mouths to each nipple. For a moment, it bothers her that Buffy's blonde hair resembles Kate's.

_Kate._ The bitch who turned her into a chump; the bitch who made her feel something no vampire should ever feel. The bitch who'll get hers...

Buffy bites hard, and Faith comes. As Buffy licks up the blood, Faith lunges three fingers into Buffy's slick pussy, and she humps her hand, movements rushed and erratic.

"That's right, fuck it, you little slut."

Willow touches herself, pinches her own nipple, fans a hand down her torso and between her legs, enjoying the show but needing more. "Baby..." she whimpers.

Gasping, Buffy dismounts, pushes Willow down onto her back and spreads those milky-white thighs, sucks at her swollen clitoris. Willow shudders and moans, tangles her hands in Buffy's hair.

With Buffy's ass wiggling in front of her, Faith sneers, probes her again with her fingers and fucks her hard. Buffy rams backward, loving the pain.

* * *

William hands Tara a black and white photo of Buffy with her hair piled in ringlets. "The night of her debut, 1943, she was turned."

"Wow, right there at the party?"

"Not sure," he says.

"It was at the docks," Kate volunteers quietly.

The group looks at her expectantly.

"Faith," she rasps, gazing down at her hands. "Faith told me. Willow was obsessed with this mega-rich girl who would sneak out at night and go slumming. That night she was with some sailor at the East River docks."

"Classy," proclaims Riley.

"What else did she tell you about them?"

"Um... just that they've been Thelma-and-Louise-ing it ever since..."

Anya bursts in through the swinging doors. "I did it!"

They turn to regard her.

Panting, exuberant, Anya explains, "I've been up all night, but I figured it out. Faith. She can be resouled. We can bring her back."

Slowly, Kate looks up. "How?"

"With this." She holds up a printed photograph. The gang shrugs, and she shows it to William, who frowns at it.

"The Orb of Thessula?"

"And the wicker wall unit goes to...!" Anya blurts happily, until it occurs to her this isn't a happy meeting. She clears her throat. "Any idea where we can get one? I tried all my online sources, but no one has a—"

William lifts a finger, ducks his head under the counter and comes back with a square box. He blows the dust off, opens it, and pulls out a darkened glass sphere. "_This_ Orb of Thessula?"

Anya shakes her head and laughs, "Silly Anya. It's not deep in the mountains of Romania — it's here, next to the overdue library books."

"Frankly, I thought it was junk," William shrugs. "Something of an antique, but hardly old. I acquired it in a fire sale of sorts."

As William reads the finer points of the resouling spell, Kate walks slowly to the Orb. Touches it. It has power, she can feel it. Or maybe she's feeling the power of all of her hope, now embedded in this one small, spherical object.

"Well, now that that's been taken care of, there's the who's-performing-the-ritual question. I'm not strong enough to do it alone." Anya glances at Tara. "But the two of us are."

Tara shrinks back, points at herself. "Me? I — I'm not even very good—"

Anya smiles. "I was there when you teleported that snakedog from Hell, Tara. You can't fool me."

"No," William puts the printout, and his foot, down. "You're meddling with forces here you can't possibly understand. The risks are too great. I can't let you do this."

"Yeah," Kate agrees glumly. "It's okay, you guys. Really. I can handle her. I can... I can slay her."

"But Katie," Tara says, strengthened by the power she knows she has within. "If we can do it? Think about this. You'll have her back. _We'll_ have her back. On our side. I mean, Buffy and Willow were enough of a threat, but the old family back together? Who knows what they're capable of? Who knows what they're doing right now?"

* * *

"Unhhh!" Faith shouts, hands weaving and digging into red tresses.

"Mmm..." Lips shining, Willow beams at her sire. "You taste so good, Faithy. Like salt-water taffy."

"Gimme some sugar then." She beckons her close, and Willow meets her mouth with a giggle.

As they kiss languidly, a frustrated sigh emanates from the other side of the room. "Not to break up the fun, you guys," Buffy says, reclining in the chaise lounge with a Camel Light cigarette in her hand, "but am I the only one here who hasn't forgotten that there's a really pissed off slayer on the loose right now?"

"She's no match for my Faithy." Willow's long eyelashes flutter against Faith's left breast.

Faith idly runs a hand along Willow's back. "What's a matter, B? You worried?"

Buffy gapes in disbelief. "Were we at the same fight last night? 'Cause the one _I_ saw didn't give me that deep-down feeling of security."

"Relax, B. I got the upper hand here. The chick's head over heels — she can't kill me."

"And what makes you so sure her friends won't?"

"Her friends..." Willow muses with a frown, and holds her palm over Faith's chest, concentrating.

Buffy continues, "Or her father, now that you've given him a mighty good reason to?" She smiles. "Not that that wasn't funny."

"First of all, her friends are useless. Believe me, I've seen 'em all in action firsthand." Faith shifts her weight onto her elbows, but Willow keeps her hand still. "And fat daddy doesn't have a clue."

"Okay, next scenario then," Buffy poses, drags on her cigarette and gets up to pace the room. "Worst case, far as I'm concerned. What if she kills _us_? Me and Will? Or do you even care if she does?"

Faith scoffs. "Since when are you scared of a little slayer? You slipping or somethin'?"

"Hardly," Buffy scowls evenly. "But while _you_ were wasting your time getting all googly-eyed over her, _I_ was studying her every move. I know what makes the girl tick now. She's not stupid, and she's not frail. She's _not_ gonna break, I promise you that. You keep playing cat and mouse with Kate and you'll be the mouse before you know it."

With a gasp, Willow recoils from Faith as if she's been burned.

Faith untangles herself and sneers at Buffy, "You know jack shit about Kate. You think watching her block a few kicks gives you some kinda supreme insight? Think again, sister. I know her deepest darkests. I know her fears, her weaknesses... I know what makes her cry. I know what makes her shiver, what gives her that deep-down tickle, you got me? I know what makes her come, three times in a row, one after the other. When you top that, _Buffy_, you let me know."

"Oh, believe me, I am so not interested in fucking your little—"

"That's right, I forgot! You prefer throbbing man meat!"

Buffy gasps inwardly, but keeps her cool. "No, I just happen to value my life."

"Faithy..." Willow whispers, shaking. "No!"

Buffy stubs out her cigarette and rushes to her side. "What is it, babe? What do you see?"

"They... they're gonna take her away from me again..." She holds her head, grimacing and whimpering. "Oh god... so much pain... The fire..."

"Fire?" Buffy gives Willow a good shake. "What fire? Where? Is it Kate?"

Willow's face turns steely, angry. "It's that little witch. And that teacher lady — that wanna-be. They're gonna curse my Faithy again. Tomorrow." Suddenly, she points up at the ceiling, her finger moving slowly down. "When the moon hits... there."

"Midnight," Buffy translates, and looks up at Faith.

"Well." Faith nods several times. "Looks like B's right after all. We need to turn this party up a notch."

Buffy exhales in relief. "Finally you talk sense."

Willow gazes at Faith hopefully. "We won't let them do it? We'll stop them?"

"Yeah, baby. We'll stop 'em." Faith smiles. "We'll stop 'em forever."

_

* * *

_

_Continued..._

_

* * *

_

Characters and settings property of respective creators.  
Story, dialog and prose property of NautiBitz.  
All rights reserved. (IE, it is not okay to borrow it for your fic.) 


	4. Slayers Don't Cry

**_Becoming Kate_ by NautiBitz**

**

* * *

**  
CHAPTER FOUR:** "Slayers Don't Cry"**

* * *

**Kate wonders how she can function at all,** let alone sit behind a desk in a bright classroom, listening to her teacher drone on about the Pythagorean Theorem.

Tired as hell and hopped up on coffee and adrenaline, she has one recurring thought: _tonight, tonight, tonight._ At some point during the all-nighter in the library, a decision was made. Tonight is the night. The resouling spell is a go.

This time tomorrow, Faith might be Faith again. Kate tries not to fall into fantasy, what could be. There are so many variables, so many potential pitfalls. If it doesn't work, she can't be crushed. She has to soldier on, as her dad would say.

The classroom door opens. Kate looks up to see an old woman in a cloak enter, pause beside the teacher's desk and point directly at Kate, croaking out, "Midnight. Dixon Crypt. To the death," and bursting into flames, and into nothing.

The students gasp. Kate wonders if she's fallen asleep and is dreaming, but they're all hyperventilating, staring at her and the place the woman stood. Not a dream.

A message from Faith.

* * *

"Tara," Anya soothes. "We can do this. We will do this."

"I-I know. It's not that. It's Riley," she frets, looking across the library at the double doors. "I haven't seen him since last night and he's never late for anything."

Riley rushes in through the doors, panting. "Hey. Sorry I'm late."

"First time for everything," Anya says.

"Ri," Tara sighs in relief. "You almost had me worried."

"Don't worry about me," he assures her. "It's you I'm worried about."

Kate enters from the office, William following. "I'm going."

"And is there anything at all I can say to stop you?" He tries one last time, jumping in front of her to square her shoulders and look her in the eye. "Other than the obvious fact that you're walking headlong into a trap?"

Her expression is one of absolute resolve. "No."

"Alright then. Be careful, will you?"

"I will," she says, and approaches Tara and Anya. "If it takes too much out of you, or if it doesn't work, don't worry, okay? I'm not expecting anything."

Tara nods. "Just... don't die."

"Noted." As she walks out, she says, "Big honkin' trap, here I come."

* * *

"Is everyone ready?" Anya asks the group, sitting around her on the floor, save for Riley, who's been elected to be the lookout.

Holding a heavy baseball bat, Riley paces at the doorway and watches them apprehensively.

Tara takes a deep breath. "I think so."

William takes her hand and holds it tight. Anya clasps her hand over his. He smiles at her tenderly and inhales, eyes returning to the Orb of Thessula. "Let's begin, shall we?"

Tara initiates the chant, and they slowly join in.

* * *

Kate steps cautiously through the cemetery, checking her watch (_11:59, one minute, one minute_) calling out, "I'm here! Just like you asked. You can come out now and reveal your diabolical plan..."

Faith rounds the crypt before her, shoulder-leans against it, hip jutting out. "You're early."

"Yeah, well, punctuality... virtue." Stymied, she looks around, and looks back at Faith, who is still staring, still smiling, still standing there. "This is it? It's just you?"

She laughs. "Yeah. It's just me. Who'd you expect?"

"I don't..." She straightens. "So... Which is it, standing around talking or fighting to the death? 'Cause I don't have a lot of time."

"No," Faith smiles. "You really don't." She turns away, then shoots back with a surprise kick to Kate's stomach.

Kate buckles slightly before recovering with a punch-kick combination, catapulting Faith to the ground. She stands and regards the fallen vampire. "Wow, Faith, that kick really sucked. You're not going easy on me, are you?"

"You like it hard, don't you?" She flips up, elbows Kate in the face before she can duck.

"Okay, that was hard," she acknowledges as she snaps Faith's head backward with the heel of her palm.

And suddenly, the vampire stumbles, looks lost and afraid. She falls to her knees, clutching her stomach.

Kate stands back with a gasp.

Faith bellows in pain. A gold light flashes in her eyes. She blinks, three times, tears falling, seeing Kate as if for the first time. "Katie?"

Kate trembles. "F... Faith?"

"Katie? What — what happened? What's going on? I, I feel like I haven't seen you in weeks..."

"Faith?" She steps closer.

"Baby?" she whispers. "Were we fighting? Oh god, did I... Did I hurt you?"

"Faith," Kate whimpers and collapses onto her knees in front of her lover. "Oh god, Faith..." Their fingers thread through each other's hair. "I didn't think they could do it, but they did..."

"Katie!"

Their mouths fuse, out of hunger, loss, loneliness. Tears of joy fall from Kate's eyes. "Faith!"

They kiss again, and Faith bites Kate's lip.

The Slayer draws back and watches the woman she loves turn into Willow. "What?"

Willow giggles. "I always wondered how a slayer would taste." She licks her teeth. "Little bit tangy."

A sinking feeling at her core turns to a chill. "You set me up."

Willow smiles. "Big time."

Kate runs for her friends' lives.

* * *

As the three slip into a deeper consciousness, Riley glances through the door's porthole window, nods once, and rushes up to the center of the circle to smash the Orb to bits.

Jolting awake, William hollers, "What the bloody hell—?"

Faith bursts through the door, flanked by Buffy and several male minions. "Funny, I don't remember _ordering_ any soul." She winks at Riley. "Good job, Iowa."

The three look up in trepidation at Riley, whose grin is now framed by fangs and facial ridges.

"Oh no, God no," William utters before being knocked out by a fierce swing of Riley's bat.

"Sorry, sir," Riley sneers, and drags William towards the book cage. "But an order's an order." He throws him in and locks the door.

While Buffy catches Tara and twists her arms behind her back, Faith nabs Anya and complains to Riley, "I wanted him awake. Messenger, remember?"

"I know," he says, head ducked. "I just... didn't know I could hit so hard."

"Yeah. Gotta know your strength, Iowa. B, get in there and wake Willy-boy up."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"I don't know," she returns, irritated. "Suck his cock or somethin'. I hear you like that."

"Fuck you." Buffy flings a frightened Tara over to Riley and takes the keys, then gets into the cage, locking it behind her.

Tara looks up at her friend, beseeches, "Riley? Ri... p-please... I know you're in there somewhere..."

"Shut up," he barks, cupping a hand over her mouth, then looks to Faith. "What if Kate comes back before..."

Faith smirks. "Unless slayers can fly, we got plenty of time." Anya is a handful. Kicking, punching, biting, wriggling, yelling, doing the best she can to break free. Faith thinks it's cute. "You're a little firebrand, aren'tcha?" She tosses her over to two flunkies. "Take care of this one for a while. But no snacking, got it?"

Buffy sits on William's lap. Slaps him. Punches him. "Wake up! Rise and shine! Up and at 'em!"

Nothing.

"Hello... 'Watcher'? Aren't you supposed to be all awake and watchful?" She grunts in frustration, and opens his pants.

* * *

Kate runs down dark streets, through backyards and thoroughfares and parking lots, the shortest path from A to B but not short _enough._ She can't believe how stupid she is, how incredibly stupid she's been...

Her ears pound, her breathing escalates into panicked cries. Each random car that passes won't stop when she hails it, because the people inside don't care, don't want to know...

That the sky is falling, and there's not a damn thing she can do to stop it... but run.

* * *

Buffy rips open William's shirt. "Mmmm, nice pecs. Who'da thunk?" Her hands dip back into his briefs. "And, gotta say, not hating this muscle either." It stands at attention, despite his being out like a lightbulb.

She squeezes it, hard, and begins to pump it roughly, hearing Anya cry out, "What is she doing to him?"

She laughs and answers, "Just getting him up."

"Faith," Riley says, still subduing Tara. "She's trying to spell us. What do I do?"

"Have a little on me," Faith offers as she paces the room. "But just enough to make her weak. Think you can do that?"

"I'll do my best, Ma'am," and Tara squeaks as Riley bares his fangs, breaking the skin on her shoulder.

Anya yells out in protest, trying to break free from the flunkies' grasp.

"Ooh, ooh, baby, that's right," Buffy hisses and coos as she brings William off with her hand.

Slowly, he stirs, gasps, and unable to do anything else, comes, groaning loudly.

"He's awake," Buffy announces with a sly smile, eyes on his appalled, humiliated glare.

"Good," Faith says. "Now, quit fondling the prisoner and get your ass out here."

She smiles wickedly at William and ducks down to kiss him, biting his lip.

He growls and flails beneath her.

"Ooh, sweetie..." she tuts, too strong for him. "Can we keep him?"

"NOW!" Faith yells.

"Fine," she sighs and stands up, kicks him in the chest to keep him down and shuts the door, locking him in alone.

* * *

_Almost there, almost there..._

She can see the school building in the distance.

* * *

Faith struts before the book cage with Anya in her arms, William watching helplessly, unable to escape, pleading with her to take him instead.

"Aw, you're like a hero or something," Faith says, and shoves Anya face first against the book cage. "Want one last kiss, hero?"

He looks down, pained.

Faith smiles, and tugs Anya back. "Or is that 'first kiss'?" Holding Anya by the hair, she turns her face toward her. "Don't tell me you two have never done the deed! Aw, man, that's gotta suck."

She forces a kiss on Anya's unwilling mouth. "This what you've always wanted to do?" She lifts the hem of Anya's dress and runs a hand between her legs. "How 'bout this?"

Anya struggles to get away.

"Please," William sobs quietly, "I beg you..."

"Relax, Willy-boy. I'm not gonna fuck your girlfriend. Not that she isn't a fine piece of ass. It's just, you know, I'm a little short on time." Without ceremony, she places her hands on either side of Anya's head, and snaps her neck.

"NO!" He thrashes, wails, rattles the cage... but it doesn't change the fact that the woman he loves... the woman he loved, is dead.

Willow teleports to the library at exactly the spot where Tara lies, half drained and broken. She pouts. "I missed all the fun."

"What took you so long?" Buffy says.

"I was watching her go," she replies. "It was funny. All the running?"

"Yeah?" Faith asks. "How close is she?"

"Close." Willow cuffs Tara by the neck, lifting her high in the air. "Kitty thought the Slayer would get here in time," she tsks, and yanks the struggling girl close. "Kitty was wrong." Face morphing, she crunches into Tara's jugular vein.

William cries out unintelligibly.

Tara loses consciousness, and the world falls away.

Willow drops her conquest to the floor, and licks her lips. "You're right, Faithy. Witch blood does taste like boysenberry."

* * *

_Please, oh please, oh please..._

She rushes through the doors. At first, it seems okay, she doesn't know why, it's just quiet and bright and _normal_ in there... and then she sees Tara's body.

_Oh God, Tara!_

She runs to her side, checks her neck. No pulse_... oh god, oh god, oh god... _ then sees another body in her peripheral vision... Anya.

"No no no no no no no," she hears herself say, trying to make this all go away, start over from an hour ago, start over and stay here, stay here and DON'T leave, DON'T walk into the trap...

William is in the book cage on the floor, sputtering to himself.

"William!" she cries, her vocal chords struggling against her closing throat. "Oh god, oh god..." She peels off the cage lock and runs in to him. "William?"

He looks not at her, but through her. "Kay... Katie... She's... they're..." his face screws into a painful grimace, "all _dead!"_

Tears fall from her eyes. _Oh Christ, he had to _watch_ it... _"I'm... I'm so..." Can she even say she's sorry? Would that ever be enough?

"She wanted me alive," he bitterly spits out. "Tormented, by..." He exhales in a sob.

She steels her jaw, steadies her voice. "Where are they?"

"I don't... I don't know... but Riley..."

"What," she prompts him, ready now to hear anything. "What happened to Riley?"

"One of them," he whispers.

Her eyes widen, and her decision is made. "I'm gonna find them and make them pay."

He breathes a few labored breaths and says simply, "Good."

She watches him crumple, a lost shipwreck of a man.

Kate stands, walks out of the book cage, and is met with the barrel of a .45.

"Freeze!"

"Dad?"

The gun lowers. "Katie?"

"Dad—"

"What the hell?"

Three other cops walk in to survey the damage, nodding at her, all most likely thinking the same thing: 'Your girl's got a lot to explain _this_ time... '

"Dad, I really can't—"

"Oh you damn well better!" He grabs her arm. "Did you have something to do with this?"

Her voice shakes. "They're my friends."

"Jesus Christ," he says, registering the dead girl's face. "Is that Tara?"

"'Nother twin puncture wound," one of the cops reports indifferently, as if it isn't one of the most wonderful people in the world lying lifeless on the floor.

"Not this one," the other says from Anya's direction. "Looks like her neck's broken."

A third cop is trying to get William to stand up by pointing a gun at him.

"Leave him alone," Kate snaps at the cop. "Dad, he didn't do it. He was locked in the cage when I got here."

"You wanna tell me who DID do it?"

"Her name is Faith," she says simply, looking up at him. "And I'm going to kill her."

"What?"

"She's the one who sent you that picture."

He blinks. "What?"

"Yeah. You want to know what's going on? I'll tell you. I'm a lesbian, _and_ a vampire slayer, and not only that, but now I have to go kill my vampire ex-lover by shoving a sharp piece of wood through her heart."

He is speechless. For once in his life.

"Bye, Dad."

"Katie—" he looks back at the other cops, explains, "She's traumatized."

"Got that right," she rasps bitterly, walking out the door.

He follows, grabs her again. His voice lowers to a hiss. "What the hell do you think you're doing, running off all that bullcrap—"

"In front of _them_?" She yanks her arm away and grits, "I don't give a shit what they think, _or_ what you think. Not anymore."

"Katie!" he yells after her as she walks away. "Goddamn it! Katie! You leave now, I don't wanna see your face again! You are not my daughter! You understand me?"

She halts for a moment, clasps her eyes shut, and walks forward again, with purpose. It doesn't matter. _Nothing matters..._

He watches her go, fists opening and closing. "Fucking Christ! Katie!" He runs after her, turns the corner, but she's already gone.

* * *

"And then where will we go?"

"Mmm... Mexico," Faith decides at random, her fingers weaving into Willow's. "Get us a couple a hot tamales."

Willow chuckles. Buffy rolls her eyes and gets up, opens her pack of cigs and crushes it in her hands.

"What's wrong, baby?" Willow asks.

"This hideout? Not very hidey. I feel like a sitting duck."

"You mean you feel like sitting on some dick," Faith laughs, hands behind her head. "Watcher dick, am I right?"

"You told me to do that, if you'll recall."

"I didn't tell you to enjoy it."

Willow pouts, "She doesn't want me anymore."

"What?" Buffy asks. "I do too."

"But I want you more," Faith asserts, pulling Willow closer and sucking on her neck.

Willow giggles and squeals. "You do, don't you?"

Buffy gapes, shakes her head, exhales... and walks out. _Enough of this shit._

Riley's lookout at the front door. "Going somewhere?"

She shrugs. "Getting takeout."

* * *

Kate is beyond frustrated. She can't find them in any of their usual haunts, she's been everywhere, and it's nearly morning.

"Looking for someone?" a female voice inquires behind her.

She turns. It's Buffy. It's BUFFY? Enraged, Kate lashes out at her.

Buffy ducks and backpedals. "Hey, hey! Whoa! Y'know, _I_ didn't do any of the killing tonight—"

"I don't care!"

She stops Kate's fist in mid-air and reasons, "Look. You could try to kill me but that'd take time you don't have. Better yet, you could use that time to end this thing." Green eyes bore into blue. "I know where they're holed up."

Kate frowns. "What?"

"You wanna know or not? Time's a-wasting, Slayer."

"Why would I believe you, when you and Willow are..."

"History?" A bitter laugh. "I could never give her what she wanted. I mean, I'm not even..." She shakes it off with a shrug. "She's all about her _mommy_ now."

The Slayer's hand drops. She stands back and waits.

"They're in that old shed at the docks. The one with the shark fins all over it?" She spins on her heel to walk away. "Farm boy's keeping watch."

Kate is dumbfounded. "Where are _you_ going?"

"Away. Somewhere that's an else. You and me? We'll deal with each other another day." She halts, seems to consider something, digs into her pockets and hands Kate her Zippo lighter. "You want this? I'm quitting. Makes my clothes reek."

Kate stands there, turning the silver lighter in her hands as Buffy disappears into the night.

Another setup?

A cold, detached inner voice answers immediately:

_Nothing left to lose._

* * *

"Sorry, Riley," Kate whispers to herself as she lets the crossbow sail.

It pierces him right through the heart. He looks down and back up, scanning the dark and where it came from... and bursts into a million particles of dust.

She drops the crossbow, picks up the jug of gasoline. Peeks through a hole in the boarded-up window, sees the two of them there, fucking atop their dinner. It turns her stomach. It gives her strength.

She acts on autopilot, dousing the shed with gasoline, every inch she can reach. Lets a trail drip behind her as she steps over broken clam shells toward the street.

She flips the Zippo top open and drops it, maps out a resolute path before her and takes it, without looking back.

She'll leave this town tomorrow. She'll shut out the sound of her one true love screaming to her end. She'll close this chapter and burn the book.

From now on, she'll only be Kate. Not the vampire slayer, not the police chief's daughter, not the high school student, not the lovesick fool, responsible for the death of everyone she knows.

Kate doesn't cry. Ever again.

* * *

_THE END_

_

* * *

_

Characters and settings property of respective creators.  
Story, dialog and prose property of NautiBitz.  
All rights reserved. (IE, it is not okay to borrow it for your fic.) 


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